Towing Jehovah Analysis
“God’s big, dead body”
‘Towing Jehovah’ by James Morrow is many things. It’s a fictional story, an epic tale, and in my opinion a poignant social commentary on our ever-becoming atheist (at least in behavior and tendencies) world. Morrow uses no subtle manner to illustrate this point. The basic premise of the book is that God is dead, and his giant body is floating in the ocean. The Vatican orders an oil tanker captain and his ragtag crew to literally tow the body (like a tugboat) to the North Pole to preserve it in a giant vault. From shipwreck islands to WWII re-enactors dropping bombs on the body of God to the sexual exploits of the crew, this book is certainly and adventure. But, what does it all mean? I viewed this book as a commentary on our continuingly lesser emphasis on religion (and in a lot of ways, morality) in our modern day culture. It’s no surprise that religion has gone more and more the way of the dodo for many people in our society today. Whether it’s from scandal in the churches, a stricter code of morals than what we are used to today, an largely unavailable amount of physical evidence, general malaise, or any other reason for that …show more content…
Could we not also view this a metaphoric veil to discuss how atheists could hypothetically block the proof of God from the mass public in today’s day and age? History has always been written by the winners, and a person could make a case for an ever growing atheist populace around the world. If the majority of people believe God do not exist, and a small faction of them discover the proof, it is not beyond the realm of possibility they would seek to conceal this information from the general public. (of course we all know people in power would never cover up anything they felt we shouldn’t know…
‘Towing Jehovah’ by James Morrow is many things. It’s a fictional story, an epic tale, and in my opinion a poignant social commentary on our ever-becoming atheist (at least in behavior and tendencies) world. Morrow uses no subtle manner to illustrate this point. The basic premise of the book is that God is dead, and his giant body is floating in the ocean. The Vatican orders an oil tanker captain and his ragtag crew to literally tow the body (like a tugboat) to the North Pole to preserve it in a giant vault. From shipwreck islands to WWII re-enactors dropping bombs on the body of God to the sexual exploits of the crew, this book is certainly and adventure. But, what does it all mean? I viewed this book as a commentary on our continuingly lesser emphasis on religion (and in a lot of ways, morality) in our modern day culture. It’s no surprise that religion has gone more and more the way of the dodo for many people in our society today. Whether it’s from scandal in the churches, a stricter code of morals than what we are used to today, an largely unavailable amount of physical evidence, general malaise, or any other reason for that …show more content…
Could we not also view this a metaphoric veil to discuss how atheists could hypothetically block the proof of God from the mass public in today’s day and age? History has always been written by the winners, and a person could make a case for an ever growing atheist populace around the world. If the majority of people believe God do not exist, and a small faction of them discover the proof, it is not beyond the realm of possibility they would seek to conceal this information from the general public. (of course we all know people in power would never cover up anything they felt we shouldn’t know…